Latch construction for railway car hopper doors



W. F. BATHO Oct. 14, 1958 LATCH CONSTRUCTION FOR RAILWAY CAR HOPPER DOORS 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVEN TOR: WLZZza/ FfiaZ/za Filed Aug. 25, 1954 w. F. BATHO 2,8555865 LATCH CONSTRUCTION FOR RAILWAY CAR HOPPER DOORS Oct. 14, 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 25, 1954 HVVENTOR. M/amfBaZ/zq BY Oct. 14, 1958 w. F. BATHO 2,855,865

LATCH CONSTRUCTION FOR RAILWAY CAR HOPPER DOORS Filed Aug. 25, 1954 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR.

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United States Patent LATCH CONSTRUCTION FOR RAILWAY CAR HOPPER DOORS William F. Bathe, Chicago, 111., assignor to Enterprise Railw y Eq ipm nt C mpany, hi ag L, a ar ration of Illinois i Application August 25, 1954, Serial No. 452,000

3 Claims (C 105-405) This invention relates, generally, to the construction of latches for railway car hopper doors and it constitutes an improvement over the construction shown in Dorey Patent No. 2,588,219, issued March 4, 1952.

It is usual practice tolatch a hopper door of a railway car in the inclined closed positionby the cooperation of a keeper carried by the hopper and extending through an opening in the door along its. swinging edge with a latching bar pivoted on the door and swingable parallel thereto. The keeper is provided with an inclined striker face for automatically displacing the latching bar upwardly when the door is slammed shut. While the latching bar is intended to move downwardly atthe end of the striker surface to engage a shoulder on the keeper to hold the door closed, it is sometimes the case that the latching bar overtravels to such an extent that the door starts to swing back to the open position before the latching bar can engage the shoulder. Thus, it fails to latch and the door again swings to the open position.

Accordingly, among the objects of this invention are: To provide for limiting the extent that the latching bar can swing upwardly when the door carrying the same is slammed shut;'to cause the latching bar to rebound downwardly with sufiicient speed to cause it to engage the shoulder on the keeper betore .the door can swing toward the opened position; and to bias the latching bar downwardly generally as a function of the speed with which it is moved upwardly. on slamming the-door closed.

Other objects of this. invention will, in part, be obvious and in part appear hereinafter.

This invention is disclosed in the embodiments thereof shown in. the accompanying drawings and it comprises the features .of construction, combination of elements and arrangement eff parts that will .be exemplified in the constructions hereinafter set forth and the scope of the, application of which. will also indicated in the appended claims.

For a more complete understanding of the nature and scope of this invention reference can be had to the following detailed description, taken together with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a view, in side elevation, of an outlet hopper for a railway car provided with a door which is arranged to be latchedin the closed position and in which the present invention is embodied;

Figure 2 is a vertical transverse sectional view through one-half of the railway car and showing the door in the open pendant position;

Figure 3 is a view which shows how the latch bar is caused to rebound downwardly to the latching position;

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view taken generally along the line 4-4 of Figure 2;

Figure 5 is a view, partly in side elevation and partly in section, showing, at an enlarged scale, the construction of the locking dog of the present invention constructed so as to cause the latching bar to rebound down- Wardly to the latching position;

Figure 6. is a detailed sectional view taken generally along the line ,6 .-.-6 of Figure 5; I

Pigure7 isv a view,. sin1ilar to Figure 5, showing a modified consttuction of the. locking dog; and

Figure 8 is a detailed sectional view taken generally along the line 88 of Figure 7.

Re r g no p a ly t Fi ur and f the drawings, it will be observed that the reference character 10 designates the centersill of a hopper type railway car which s p ed in ardly from a. d W ll B tw en the centersill 10 and side wall 11 there is a hopper which i n ic d generally, a 12, A is on e t nal two or more hoppers are provided on each, side. of the centersill Sit they are ident ca in cons r ct n, only o e is wn a de c ibed here n.-

E h orror 12 illcludes side all .13 an 4 sh ten floor sheet .1 and a tap floo sheet. 1 o e er ese Wall and heets define a disch r ope i ha l i d cated, generally, at 17, Figure 4, and snrrtnlndingv it is a stirrup shaped frame 18 and a top beam member 1-9. It will be nde st d a t e frame 13 is s cu ed b rivet or y e ing o the e es o he s de al1s n 4 and of the bottom floorsheet 1 5 and thatthe. top bean! member 19. is secured to the upper ends of, the frame' 18 n to e nd s of thatch flo she t Th t p beam m mber .1 is pr vi ed with WQ pairs of hi e butts 20 ou wh ch h nge Pin 21 ea cadt receiving hinges 22 that are secured, as by welding, to. a door that is indicated, generally, At 2,3,. It willhe observed a the door ,3 is a rang d to swir s f om a P nden p p on, ho n by b oken line in igu e to. an inc i d closed pos t o sho n by full iaesi lli ifi ut Ext n g ng. th swingin dge of th slop 2. o he outsid of i a doo v b am member 2 whi hfi u d in PQSiliOI} the o by ve s 27.- I te mediate the ends ofthe door beam member 261 is, an ope g 28 through which a nose portion 29, Figure 4, of a shgpldered keeper, shown generally at 30, extends. here shown the keeper 30f'is held, in position on the bottom floor sheet 15 by rivets '31. v

The nose portion 29 of the keeper 30 is provided with an inclined striker 'tace 32 which has a shoulder 33 at its upper end for cooperating with a latching bar :34 to hold the door 23in the closed position as'showningFigure 4. The latchingbar 34 is'pivoted at 35, Figure "2, on the door beam member 26 and its other ,end is arranged to be guided between upstanding arms 36' and '37 thatare formed integrally with the door beam member 26.

"In order-to hol'd' thelatching bar '34 in the latching position =sh'own in Figure 4 there-.l'is'pivotally mounted at 38 on the upstanding arms 36 and 37 a locking dog 39 which has an arcuate locking surface 40 that is arranged to engage a correspondingly shaped upper surface of the latching bar 34 to hold it in the latching position.

With a view to holding the locking dog 39 in the unlocked position as shown in Figures 2 and 3 of the drawings, a shoulder 41 is provided on and integrally formed with the upstanding arm 37 for cooperation with a shoulder 42 that extends outwardly from and is formed integrally with the locking dog 39.

When the door 23 carrying the latching bar 34 is swung toward the closed position from the pendant open position, the underside of the latching bar 34 engages the inclined striker face 32 and is caused to be moved 'wardly solely under the influence of gravity to a position where it can engage the shoulder 33 and prevent the door 23 tron: swinging to the open position.

bumper plate 46 is provided thereover and is held in position thereon by the screws 45. When the latching bar 34 engages the metallic bumper plate 46 with the locking dog 39 in the position as shown in Figure 3, it

'is biased downwardly as a function of the speed with which the door 23 is slammed shut or the speed of up- Ward movement of the latching bar 34. As a result the latching bar 34 moves downwardly as soon as it engages the bumper plate 46 overlying the resilient compressible bumper 44 and it is moved into engagement with the shoulder 33 before the door 23, carrying the latching bar 34, can move away from the closed position and cause the latching bar 34 to miss the shoulder 33.

It will be apparent that the shoulder 41 on the arm 37 and the shoulder 42 on the locking dog 39 constitute stop means which serve to position the locking dog 39 such that it remains immovable when it is engaged by the upward throw of the latching bar 34.

In order to facilitate movement of the locking dog 39 from the locked position a boss 47 is formed integrally therewith for. receiving an operating bar which may rest upon a fulcrum seat 48 that is provided on the upper end of the upstanding arm 37.

At the end of the latching bar 34 remote from the pivot 35 there is provided a shoulder 49 with which the removable bar can cooperate to lift the latching bar 34 from the latched position and to operate it to the fully latched position. For moving the latching bar 34 from the latched position the operating bar is located underneath the shoulder 49 with its inner end carried by a fulcrum pocket 50 that is formed in the outer side of the upstanding arm 37. The removable operating bar is positioned underneath the fulcrum seat 48and on top of the shoulder 49 for prying the latching bar 34 to the latching position.

In Figures 7 and 8 of the drawings a modified construction of the locking dog 39 is illustrated. Here an integral extension 53 is shown that constitutes a part of the locking dog 39 which is preferably formed of a steel casting. The extension 53 is of the same general outline as the resilient compressible bumper 44 with the bumper plate 46 secured thereto. It will be understood that the locking dog 39 with the integral extension 53 can be employed in lieu of the construction previously described for causing the latching bar 34 to rebound downwardly so that it will engage the shoulder 33 before the door 23 can swing from the closed to the open position once it has been slammed shut.

Since certain changes can be made in the foregoing construction and difierent embodiments of the invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, it is intended that all matter shown in the ac companying drawings and described hereinbefore shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What is claimed as new is:

l. in a railway car having a hopper with a discharge opening and a door hinged to said hopper adjacent an upper side of said opening and swingable under the effect of gravity to an open position, in combination, akeeper secured to said hopper andhaving a hook shaped por tion extending generally at right angles to the hinge axis of said door and through the door when closed and spaced from said hinge axis, said hook shaped portion opening upwardly and having a latching shoulder and an inclined guiding striker face leading to said shoulder, a latching bar pivotally mounted on said door adjacent the edge of the door furthest removed from said hinge axis with its under surface engageable with said inclined guiding striker face whereby the latch bar is swung upwardly during the final closing movement of said door, a locking dog pivotally mounted on said door above said latch bar between the pivot end'and the distal end of said latch bar and swingable downwardly into locking engagement therewith, stop means on said door cooperating with said locking dog to hold the locking dog in an upright unlocked position, and a resilient extension on said locking dog interposed in the upright position of the latter between the axis of rotation of said locking dog and a portion of the upper side of said latch bar.

2. The invention as set forth in claim 1 wherein the resilient extension is formed integrally with and constitutes a part of the locking dog.

3. The invention as set forth in claim 1 wherein the resilient extension comprises a metallic bumper plate with a layer of rubber interposed between the bumper plate and the locking dog.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 487,077 Rapson Nov. 29, 1892 1,448,137 Lindsay Mar. 13, 1923 2,588,219 Dorey Mar. 4, 1952 2,630,769 ,Batho et al. Mar. 10, 1953 2,641,198 Zimmer June 9, 1953 2,684,644 Dorey July 27, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,040 Great Britain Jan. 16, 1901 

